OpEdNews.com

The other day on the elementary school playground my daughter was assured by a classmate that her mother would go to Hell for not believing in God and failing to attend church each Sunday.

My daughters friend likely learned of my damnation from the myriad church signs on display in our small West Virginia town. These signs drip with religious

sanctimony: The most dangerous place in the U.S.? A womans womb," or I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Few, by the way, say Welcome.

My little girl frets over my fate, as she is daily reminded of the strangeness of her mothers choicesto remain single and to move through the world free of Christian dogma. When confronted with my daughters tears of confusion, I wonder why my community embraces this ideological badgering.

Then I remember. Voices from the extreme right take it upon themselves to preach their own version of the Good News: Christian sanctimony backed by military arrogance.

Is it any wonder that even on the playground religious dogma, intolerance and fear are taking hold when Ann Coulter can credit the U.S. with inventing the Christian value[s] of equality and freedom? This must come as a great surprise to Biblical scholars studying teachings from 2,000 years ago. No Biblical whiz kid, Coulter speaks in bigoted code; in her view equality and freedom really mean heterosexual marriage and wars against all peoples foolish enough not to embrace her brand of Christianity.

At times like thesewe are at war and deeply divided over the coming electionI wonder why our blessings do not satisfy. I wonder why American good fortune inspires in some not generosity and compassion, but instead bigotry and hate. It seems to me that as the richest, safest folks in the world, we owe others and ourselves a debt of humility and liberality.

So in the hope of inspiring a little of both, I take it upon myself this Election Season to remind Ann Coulter, my neighbors, all of us, of our enormous blessings.

First among them: the freedoms to vote and to practice the religion of our choice.

Also, increasing numbers of Americans disapprove of our being at war; voter registrations are at record highs; as a teacher I am free to teach King, Solzenhitzin, Lorca, Havel, Malcolm X, Wilde, Peltier; impassioned political dialogue takes place in the open; gays continue to fight for the right to commit themselves in the name of love. And my small townwhich does not have a Starbucksdoes have a womens shelter and a city mission.

None of this is to say we cant do better. My town is shrinking, lost jobs are not coming back, we pay more taxes and watch the rich get richer; feeling forgotten and poor, my neighbors often shelter themselves in religious prejudice.

Still, this small town is overwhelmingly in favor of John Kerry, and this gives me hope. It suggests my neighbors largely reject the unjustified war in Iraq, the squandering of a record surplus and the hypocrisy of the religious right. While my little girl doesnt feel free yet to discuss religion at school, the other morning I noticed a Kerry-Edwards button pinned to her back.

Kellie Bean d_baron57@yahoo.com Marshall University Huntington, West Virginia